A team of Memorial Sloan Kettering scientists has come up with an approach to make stem-cell-derived neurons rapidly age in a cell culture dish. The breakthrough could transform research into Parkinson’s and other late-onset diseases.

As a child, Michael Kharas knew that he wanted to “be making the drugs doctors use to cure people.” Today he investigates molecular processes that stem cells and tumor cells have in common – in the hopes of uncovering insights for treatments for cancer and other diseases.